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First things first. Two nights ago I was about to turn left onto the best on-ramp in the city when I noticed a new convertible in my rear-view mirror. (It wasn't actually in my mirror, eh, it was just a reflection.) Get it? So I tell the Good Car Girl that at the top of the on-ramp a nice little cabrio was going to cruise on by.White is the new... black, and this white Volkswagen Eos would please the Good Car Girl with her lifelong love of VW's. The Eos may be a touch soft, but it does look pretty nice and has a couple great engines.I told her the Eos was likely being driven by a lady who would want to show us her impatience after being held up on the on-ramp. It is a GREAT on-ramp, and the urge to tramp it is hard to resist. I resisted, and she waited until the top.Where, the lady in the Eos merged behind me, and then signaled for the next lane and flew on by. That 2.0L turbo doesn't have crazy stats, but there's no denying serious mid-range punch. Complaints? Acknowledging that winds shall buffet thee, why must the windows of every stinkin' convertible with its roof down (rare, see below) be up? The wind deflectors that manufacturers offer today are fine, a nicely amalgamated part of the design. But the windows up... ugh. It's gross. Notice the windows-down consistency in promotional shots. I was trying to impress the Veedub advocate behind me with one of her Veedubs. Not being a convertible lover, the end impression wasn't all that great considering that the windows-up posotion made the 29-year oldish female inside the Eos looked 79-years old.Not cool.Worse still was the Thunderbird I saw on the warmest day of the year up to this point. With high temperatures forecast for 28ºC, bright beaming sunshine, a black Thunderbird went moseying on through a 4-way stop in front of me with its black soft-top up.Sure, he was going to a business meeting and he couldn't get his hair mussed. Tell me when exactly you want your hair tangled? Try..... never. Ever notice that certain convertibles are prone to having their tops dropped? 80's VW Cabriolet? The tops go down when the temperatures rise over 5º. BMW 3-series cabrios? Tops only drop on roads that lead to beaches or in southern portions of Florida and California where you have to show the neighbours your sprayed-on tan.Lessons learned? Say yes. When, not if, you drop the top on your convertible, drop the windows as well......Hyundai has a good-looking little wagon-ette with no plans to bring the car to North America. Pout. 'German-designed Hyundai' has a nice ring to it.....They tell me now that my Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano is two years from delivery. Pout again. I can't get the Hyundai I want and now I have to wait for my Fezza? It's a rough life. No, seriously - wait times for Ferrari and some other exoto-luxo-prestige cars are lengthening as demand from China and Russia joins the burgeoning Middle-Eastern markets. China will buy at least 150 Ferraris this year; Russia took 60 last year, thereby prolonging my wait.....Karl Lagerfeld's photography of the new Audi R8 will be displayed in New York City starting next week. Then the pics will be seen in a calendar called the "Kaleidoscope Vision of a Car". Problem? That calendar of this oh-so-nice Audi is only available to R8 buyers. I took the Ferrari - which I'm still waiting for - over the R8 and now I discover I forfeit the calendar too. On a more interesting note, have you ever realized that as photographers and like-minded artistic people become famous, their pictures of something often have them in it taking a picture of the true object? The preview pictures of the R8 are great, but Lagerfeld is in one of the shots, taking a shot of the R8? Well whose really behind the lens? Didn't R8 buyers pay all this money to get the car and pictures by Lagerfeld? "I didn't pay for the assistant's photography".......The original Gordon Murray-designed Light Car Company Rocket will be reproduced. At a price of $99,500 USD. The car weighs less than 1000 pounds, seats two tandem-style, and rockets past just about anything. But they'll just make 10 per year, which likely lengthens the waiting list. Pout. Gordon Murray designed the McLaren F1 and I missed out on that, too.....
We are stereotyping beings. "Government workers never do any work." That kind of thinking is rampant. "Redheads all have tempers." You know how it is.I have some car-related stereotypes. Certain groups of people do tend to purchase certain kinds of cars. While walking across the crosswalk down our street a few days ago, with the WALK sign lit, I noticed at about the halfway point that a dark-coloured Toyota Corolla was not seeing us or 'her' red light. Yes, I instinctively spoke of the driver (as we paused at the median in fear) as a she. Sorry.But I was right. She was on her cell phone, and looked a little bouncy with the music. Brakes gave a little squeal and the car gave a short slide toward our shins. She was not aware.A lack of awareness does not pertain to my previous stereotypes of Corolla drivers. The stereotype involved a girl like this one, likely named Jen, who hasn't an ounce of enthusiasm for the automobile and about as much respect for the road and other cars. She's on her way to pick up Gabi who drives a 3-year old Cavalier but yearns to own a Corolla. They're going to the beach, but have no intention of going in the water. They might splurge and buy french fries, but I can't imagine they'd dare to eat them all for fear of not being able to wear a bikini next time out.That's so cruel and oh so not true. Especially in light of news from South Africa, where on the N1 highway near Johannesburg six men were arrested for driving a little too quickly. Six men in six cars, the fastest clocked at 229 km/h, the slowest at 181 km/h. In between were cars at 192 km/h, 188, and 182. Vehicles involved were made by Mercedes (no model specified), a Volkswagen Jetta and a Polo GTI, a BMW with no specified nomenclature, an Opel Corsa, and.... get this, a Toyota Corolla.Now, driving dangerously is not condoned by The Good Car Guy or GCBC. However, I think this is actually a good thing for Corolla's reputation. Kinda like Martha Stewart going to jail, it only brought more attention to her person and empire. Excuses came out of three men's mouths, one regarding taking his son to the hospital. Another said he had to take some people home who lived a fair distance, and another's wife was at home - pregnant - and in labour. All six men paid fines, were released, and were to appear in court.Unfortunately, even as the Corolla garners a touch of coolness for being caught doing something real drivers do, it loses a touch of that cool factor for being the slowest of the six. Nevertheless, the stereotypes I previously held must now be surrendered. Forever laid down at the feet - and on the monitor - of the Good Car Nation. ---- Notes: Mercury Topaz's have been tested at speeds of 180 km/h. Does that make the 'iconic' Topaz kinda cool?
When Sobeys, Loblaws, H-E-B, Costco, and Safeway price their Coca-cola at... SHOCK AND HORROR, an extra $0.15 per litre, do the conspiracy theorists begin their tirade? "They're working together, Loblaws and Sobeys have always had enough boardroom changeover to make things appear a little fishy. Coke and Pepsi are paying them off!"Perhaps that sentiment is somewhere on the internet, but I've yet to see it. Or what about the feeling of, "Can't the President work with Pelosi and Reid to sort this soda problem out? The American people can't live like this."Then there's the persistent emotional backlash against a consumer-driven society from Oxfam and the World Wildlife Fund because we, as a race, can not survive on Coca-Cola alone and much more has to be done to educate humanity on the benefits of water and fruit juice. 'Acai or death', they shout.Give me a break. If the world-at-large is so upset that regular gasoline on the east coast of Canada costs $1.17 CDN/litre or that Manhattan taxi-drivers are paying $3.05 USD/gallon or that the Shell garage on Newnham Road in Cambridge is charging 92.9 pence per litre, don't buy Coca-Cola at $1.59 for 591 millilitres. We've all heard that argument before, and we hate it. You can't compare apples with oranges or Pepsi with gasoline. Yea verily. But, can we not admit to our own selfishness on the account of petrol? During my brief life, I've heard very few heated debates over inflation; specifically NO debates over the rising cost of soda or maple syrup and an unfortunate lack of debate over the increasing expense of school supplies and general medicine. But boys oh boys, let us argue about gasoline. Nobody likes Microsoft's attempts at monopolization, but we'll not deny Bill Gates his well fought for money. We actually grow fearful when automotive and airline jobs are cut as a result of poor financial results. We want our government to have a surplus, we need celebrities to be rich (or they'd be just like us), and we don't generally reject the effects of capitalism. Yet, when we hear the yearly financial earnings of Shell, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil, our intelligence is insulted. With good reason, on some occasions. To see the price of fuel after Katrina and then hear of record profits - well, that stings. But if we the consumer buy from the producer and see no reason to let $3.00 a gallon stop us, they have every right to keep on selling. No, they really do. If you want to get upset because of the high taxes on fuel, that is another argument. But when it comes to the profits Shell and others make because of simple supply and demand, we have got to blame ourselves. At least a little.The price is high in my hometown. I am about to drive to the mall. The Good Car Girl needs shoes, ya know, the things we put our feet in so that we can walk. We're going to drive a car to the place where she can find shoes for her feet. Catch the irony? Last night we were five minutes too early to pick up a passenger, so we took a brief drive to look at cars. Admittedly, we spent most of the time looking at Lexus hybrids. Good for us. We were channeling DiCaprio and Sarandon.There is a vicious cycle going on. Conservation is a big time buzz-word now, and it's a buzz word that will continue to.... umm... buzz. We all know cleaner cars would be a good thing, but while requesting cleaner cars we still use the same old liquid that causes every vehicle to pollute. And to buy that liquid, we support companies that drill in areas that ought to be left untouched. There goes that part of the conservation. We accelerate quickly away from the gas station because we're so ticked off that it cost $75.00 and by accelerating so quickly, we burn more of that 'expensive' liquid and return to the gas station sooner. As our words say, "Conserve, preserve, reuse, reduce...." our actions sing another tune.We say gasoline is expensive. We don't act like it.
---- Simulcast with Good Value Bad Value
Amongst the world of automobilia comes news that....General Motors is making a push for Uzbekistan. Apparently, unbeknown to me, GM has already made some inroads in Kazakhstan and plans to develop in Romania as well. All of this comes through their takeover of Daewoo, whose presence in these markets was secured in the 90's. President Karimov must be so excited for his country's economic expansion.....On April 27th, the eBay bid for Bo Duke's personal General Lee was at $505,000. This Charger is especially, er.... special because it was indeed John Schneider's own General Lee. But yet the final selling price of $9,900,500 does seem extravagant. A Bugatti Type 41 Royale sold for $11 million in 1987. All in all, at the end of the day, when all is said and done, Mr. Schneider's PayPal account is more handsome than mine.....It was kind of neat in 2003 when the Ferrari/Maserati group won the title of best place to work in all of Italy. Now, the Great Place to Work Institute has given the title of Best Place to Work 2007 to Ferrari, but not just for Italy, but all of Europe. Amidst fun events like new-car unveilings and Grand Prix races come medical checkups for worker and family, preventative medical programs and the recognition of human beings as the 'fulcrum of the company's work systems' and by placing an emphasis on the necessity and importance of each individual worker, regardless of their duty. Forza lavoro.......The upcoming Dodge Durango Hybrid will offer its hybridized-powertain to its platform mate, the Chrysler Aspen. This means there will be not one, but two, Hemi Hybrids. What a conundrum. Hemi and hybrid......An atomic orange, gold-ribboned Chevrolet Corvette will pace the Indy 500 this month. Interestingly, McDreamy will become McRacey and do the driving. Patrick Dempsey is an avid race fan and car enthusiast and the co-owner of the Vision Racing team. He raced in the celebrity undercard at Long Beach this year and does voiceover on Mazda commercials, as well....
Tell me something. When your child, boy or girl, comes home from school and says, “Mom! Dad! I saw the coolest car today. Can we buy a Mustang GT?”, how do you respond? My guess is you say no. I am likely correct.
But, for one second, could we just consider a car purchase from the youngster’s perspective? On the most recent test drive I took I was the backseat tester. No, not backseat driver, just tester. I decided I would let my good friend do the driving, and my wife and I would consider what a Mazda 5 was like from the rear-most inhabitants outlook. What’s it like back there? How’s it feel back there? What kind of life did I lead when I was 7 and in my mother’s Grand Caravan?
This is something different altogether, the 5. In Europe, miniature minivans, or MPVs to those on the Continent, are huge hits. Renault offers 5 MPVs altogether, and three of them are sized like the Mazda or smaller. Opel/Vauxhall makes the popular Zafira, which seats seven. Ford is in the game with the C-Max, and VW offers the Touran. You see what I mean, everybody’s got’em.
Now Mazda wants to try out the segment on this supersized side of the pond. People here drive Suburban’s, Sienna’s, and Odyssey’s, but will they like the smaller and less capacious 5? I decided to find out from the viewpoint of the people who caused their parents to need such a vehicle.
Here’s what I discovered. Firstly, the middle row of the six-seater is incredibly spacious, whether you’re talking legroom, headroom, or even arm/hip room against the door. If there is nobody behind you in the rearmost row, you can slide the middle seats back to further yourself from the driver and front passenger. All in all, the second row gets my recommendation. Secondly, the 5 lends itself to being seen out of very well from all angles and all seats. The windows are large, and the car (I hate to call it a van) isn’t actually all that large, which you’ll find out if you park it side-by-side with the already small Mazda MPV. So to the kid who always misses the moose on the Cabot Trail, or who doesn’t even notice he is on the Golden Gate Bridge , I’ve found the place where your carseat needs to go.
Next is the third row, more of a split bench than the front four seats. To be honest, this isn’t a place where I would want to spend a lot of time. Then again, I’m a mighty large child at nearly 6 feet and double the weight of a big kid. So, in this case, you kind of need to suspend the importance of my thoughts. Beneficially, you can seat the tallest of those people allotted the third row to the right side of the vehicle, so that the front passenger and the middle right passenger can slide ahead. Then put the smaller passenger in the left side, behind those who require more space. Got it? The first problem in the 5 is that you’re tempted to carry five or six passengers on a trip, but you can’t, because there ain’t no room for yo' luggage. So as I said to my driver, we must not think of the Mazda as a six-passenger cargo hauler. It’s a sextet people hauler, or a four passenger cargo hauler. And it will certainly carry a bunch of stuff when you equip it for four by easily folding down the third row.
Folding is an altogether easy thing in the 5, with the five passenger seats all going down, four of them perfectly flat. Finally, driving impressions, er... riding impressions. We were in an automatic (yes, a manual is standard equipment even in this MPV) and it was only found a little breathless navigating a steep on-ramp. Albeit, that was purely from my inherent g meter - the driver found it fine. The manual would be quicker and better on fuel, to boot.
The ride/handling compromise was favourable. It’s likely the most fun to drive tall-roofed six-seater you can buy, even from my backseat position. The suspension is designed for smoothness, but roll is kept in check. Very nice. In other words, if a kid sees a Mazda 5 at school, and dares to ask for one, you might even like it more than he or she does. This is one of the first attempts to bridge this gap in the market, and it comes in at a price that happens to be very attractive, considering the safety and convenience features that come standard.
Everything you’d expect to be powered is, and 4-wheel discs and ABS slow everything down, all for around $20,000 CDN. The 2.3L 4-cylinder is the only powerplant, and the 157 horses the engine produces are suitable in a vehicle of this size. If you want similar space in a Mazda, the 6 wagon comes only with the V6. Besides, it's just a five-seater.
So why do I mention the kids coming home from school and asking for a new car? Well, they may just ask for a 5 after they see that it is in the van configuration that Ma and Pa want, but with the sleekest, stylish, and most svelte looks to land on an MPV since I don’t know when. It ticks all the boxes.
'Two fewer selling days' was part of General Motors reasoning for their drop in sales this April, as compared to April of 2006. GM's sales dropped 9.5 % to 307,554 but with two less days to sell cars, their daily selling rate was down just 1.9 percent.DaimlerChrysler was a rare example of improvement this past month. Sales of the Chrysler Group cars were up 2%, even as Toyota; Honda; Nissan; Hyundai; and Kia dropped.Average sales capitulation for those five Asian automakers was 8.7%, a number that reflects negatively on Toyota and positively on Nissan. Purchases and leases of Toyota's dropped only 4.3%, while Nissan's went down 18 percent. Honda, Hyundai, and Kia regressed with percentage drops of 9, 5, and 7 respectively.Ford Motor Company sold 12% less F150's, which seriously inhibits any chance of growth. Therefore, Ford's numbers were down 13% as a whole. The intentional drop in fleet sales can only be considered a small part of Ford's overall plummet. (See story here.) Ford sold to fleets at a 5% slower rate in April of '07.-----
If you decide to buy yourself a city car in 2009, would you stick with the obvious choice (below) or try something new (right) ? What if something new was a Toyota Endo and could potentially seat more than two? Rumours are gathe
ring momentum, and the common thinking is that Toyota will produce an Endo-like city car sometime in 2008. The Endo concept was a 3+1, with a small seat behind the passenger and a child-sized perch behind the driver. The Endo would be a healthy 16 inches shorter than Toyota's already small Aygo. Mix a little Toyota quality and dependability with a terrific concept, and you may have a winner.-------Add Hyundai to the growing mix of diesel believers for America. DBA is a growing group. Hyundai has a desire to produce a 50-state compliant diesel engine by '09 or '10, specifically for the Veracruz. A 240bhp torque monster would do quite well in a Tiburon or Sonata, too..... The Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters added 12 inches to the midsection of a Lamborghini Gallardo. What righteous cause could they find? Shaquille O'Neal. Hopefully that'll cheer up the big man after getting swept out of the playoffs..... Apparently the keys to a Volvo XC90 are at the bottom of the ocean with $50,000 in gold doubloons.... If you are pregnant, do deliver your child at 2:03:04 on 05/06/07. The birthing parents closest to that time - a sequence that will not happen again for a century - could receive a new Chrysler Sebring. Ask the concept facilitators to make it a 300C instead.
Excuse the lack of a proper posting today. The Good Car Parents were moving. U-Haul double-booked on day #1 of moving, which was number one of a few stresses.
The Good Car Parents, on two occasions in the very distant past, have had far worse experiences with the do-everything-yourself company. On a 3000 mile U-Haul journey, we broke down 1/3rd of the way in Schuylkill, PA. On the 3000 mile return journey from Texas one year later, we broke down within site of the Canadian border. These pictures exemplify some of that frustration.
The pressures of yesterday and today - such as sofas, hide-a-beds, and deep freezers - proved to me that the physical strain of sitting at a desk supplying The Good Car Nation with reading material is not so bad after all.
First things first. Two nights ago I was about to turn left onto the best on-ramp in the city when I noticed a new convertible in my rear-view mirror. (It wasn't actually in my mirror, eh, it was just a reflection.) Get it? So I tell the Good Car Girl that at the top of the on-ramp a nice little cabrio was going to cruise on by.
